Big 3 Pay 12000 UAW workers not to work

Apex · 10-18-2005, 06:46 PM

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...A01-351179.htm

Quote:

Jobs bank programs -- 12,000 paid not to work
Big 3 and suppliers pay billions to keep downsized UAW members on payroll in decades-long deal.

WAYNE -- Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working -- on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.
"We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," he says. "Otherwise, I've just sat."
Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers and Delphi Corp. as part of an extraordinary job security agreement with the United Auto Workers union.
The jobs bank programs were the price the industry paid in the 1980s to win UAW support for controversial efforts to boost productivity through increased automation and more flexible manufacturing.
As part of its restructuring under bankruptcy, Delphi is actively pressing the union to give up the program.
With Wall Street wondering how automakers can afford to pay thousands of workers to do nothing as their market share withers, the union is likely to hear a similar message from the Big Three when their contracts with the UAW expire in 2007 -- if not sooner.
"It's an albatross around their necks," said Steven Szakaly, an economist with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. "It's a huge number of workers doing nothing. That has a very large effect on their future earnings outlook."

Cubsfan · 10-18-2005, 06:55 PM

Well, that's going to be quite a shocker for them when they're done with that program (sounds like '07). I'm not sure I'd want to hire someone whose idea of work is sitting around watching TV and doing crossword puzzles. They don't sound like they are exactly building too many skills there. Bet that $31/hour is going to drop when they get off that program.

OC · 10-18-2005, 07:46 PM

I'm all for worker's rights and better treatment of workers, and I'd be in favor of some built-in safeguards to cover slowdowns and such, but this is absolutely ridiculous.

Unions have their place, but the UAW at least has gotten way too powerful.

bachviet · 10-18-2005, 08:35 PM

I would like to have that job. Thank you.

Bires · 10-18-2005, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bachviet

I would like to have that job. Thank you.

I know a few high school and middle school teachers that have similar jobs.

10-18-2005, 08:35 PM	#4
bachviet What's Da Pho*? Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: SoCal (714) Posts: 13,296	I would like to have that job. Thank you. __________________ Dell Dimension 9200 \| Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) \| 4x1GB DDR2 \| 256MB nVidia GeForce 8800GT Dell Studio 17 \| Intel Core i7-720QM (1.6GHz) \| 2x2GB DDR3 1066MHz \| 1GHz ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Intel P4-C 3.0GHz \| ECS 865PE-A \| 3x512MB PC3200 \| 128MB PNY GeForce 6600GT

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10-18-2005, 06:55 PM	#2
Cubsfan Rear Admiral Lower Half Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Colorado Posts: 2,743	Well, that's going to be quite a shocker for them when they're done with that program (sounds like '07). I'm not sure I'd want to hire someone whose idea of work is sitting around watching TV and doing crossword puzzles. They don't sound like they are exactly building too many skills there. Bet that $31/hour is going to drop when they get off that program.

10-18-2005, 07:46 PM	#3
OC the admiral formerly known as overclocked Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Outside the mainstream Posts: 5,922	I'm all for worker's rights and better treatment of workers, and I'd be in favor of some built-in safeguards to cover slowdowns and such, but this is absolutely ridiculous. Unions have their place, but the UAW at least has gotten way too powerful.

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